At a news conference Sunday night, investigators offered a preliminary timeline of the attack at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and laid out the role the resident played.

The gunman entered the small church in the rural town east of San Antonio, firing with an assault weapon at the congregation attending the morning service.

A man who lives next to the church grabbed his own rifle and engaged the gunman, said Freeman Martin, the regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"The suspect dropped his rifle, which was a Ruger AR assault-type rifle and fled from the church," Martin said.

The man then chased the gunman, Martin said.

When police spotted the suspect's vehicle a short time later at the county line, they found the gunman inside -- dead of a bullet wound.

"At this time, we don't know if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if he was shot by the local resident," Martin said.

Big lesson from this case is not just to practice CCW, but have a rifle or shotgun kept in ready condition at your home so you can have one if an incident takes place near it. In any case where you have enough time to grab a rifle or shotgun, that's the gun you want to use. If all the guy had was a pistol, he would have been at a serious disadvantage. Hopefully we'll soon know what rifle the armed citizen used, and if it was his bullets that killed the killer.

Also this brings up an interesting question. If a mass shooting was taking place next to your house, would you get involved or simply stand by and be ready to defend your home?

The man who confronted Kelley had help from another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, who told KSAT TV that he was driving past the church as the shooting happened. He didn't identify the armed resident but said the man exchanged gunfire with the gunman, then asked to get in Langendorff's truck and the pair pursued as the gunman drove away.

Langendorff says the gunman eventually lost control of his vehicle and crashed. He says the other man walked up to the vehicle with his gun drawn and the suspect did not move. He stayed there for at least five minutes, until police arrived.

"I was strictly just acting on what's the right thing to do," Langendorff said.

Ohio9 wrote:Also this brings up an interesting question. If a mass shooting was taking place next to your house, would you get involved or simply stand by and be ready to defend your home?

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

"It is demonstrable that power structures tend to attract people who want power for the sake of power and that a significant proportion of such people are imbalanced — in a word, insane.” – Frank Herbert

I've been reading some more about this story and it turns out Willeford was surprisingly badly prepared. Before he could engage the killer, he had to take his AR15 out of his safe, LOAD A MAGAZINE, load the rifle, and then get into action. That's right, he had no loaded magazines in his safe. He actually to take the time to crack open an ammo box and load a mag before he could get in the fight.

So ultimately, Willeford went into battle barefoot with one partially loaded mag, no spare ammo, and no sidearm. When the shootout was over and the killer was dead, Willeford found he had only 2 rounds left in his rifle. Of course, this isn't to take away anything from Willeford's obviously considerable skill and bravery displayed that day. But hopefully this is lesson on being prepared he will take to heart, as should all of us as well.